


Fox. Hunt. Bee. Still.

by SteelBlaidd



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29118705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteelBlaidd/pseuds/SteelBlaidd
Summary: Alya had always wanted to be a super hero, and Ladybug had made it possible.Then Chloé Bourgeois had taken it all away.But, Alya was still going to help.Help Ladybug and Chat Noir.Help her friends Marinette and Adrien.And maybe even help Chloé.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Comments: 8
Kudos: 13
Collections: January 2021 - Exchange





	Fox. Hunt. Bee. Still.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mlb_obsessedbutlazy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlb_obsessedbutlazy/gifts).



> Written as an exchange fic for the [Miraculous Fanworks Discord](https://discord.gg/XR6UHT).   
> Lots of good things asked for.   
> It may take me a bit to hit them all.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the ride.

Alya sat on the bank of the Seine with friends ranged up and down beside her. Mari and Adrien were getting ice cream from Andre. She would normally have shared one with Nino and been all excited that Mari finally seemed to be connecting with her crush, even if it was Luka and not Adrien. Luka was awesome and if Adrien was too dense to realize Mari had been into him that was his loss. 

But today she just couldn't.

Alya hated mind control akuma. Not just because they took everyone's will and made it their own. Or because half the time she would wake up with no idea what had happened. But because everyone near the akuma was mind controlled too, there were usually no pictures. Nothing that wasn't of some pre-emplaced security camera. Even if they were leaked to her the angles and framing were crap or the image was fuzzy or the government insisted she take it down, ‘or else.’ 

She was not in a position to deal with an ‘or else’. Especially when her mother worked for the Mayor, so after the first couple times she stopped trying.

This time she was glad that there were no pictures. Even if she could only remember flashes of what had happened, mostly after she was transformed, the miraculous providing a bit of a buffer between herself and Chloé ’s venom. 

No pictures meant that only Chat and Ladybug and Nino would know her shame. That Chloé Bourgeoisie had outed her as Rena Rouge to Hawk Moth. That they had been forced to fight their friends, the heroes of Paris  _ again.  _

That she was never ever going to see Trixx ever again, ever. 

So she sat with Nino as they quietly ( _ mustn't reveal the secret after all _ ) comforted each other. Trixx was gone. Wayzz was gone. They would never play together, or go racing across the rooftops to battle evil next to her boyfriend and the coolest people she knew ever, ever, again. 

The worst part is that Chloé knew and she didn't! None of  _ them  _ knew except Chloé . The stuck up air headed bitch had stuck them with her mind controlling wasp, waltzed them out to Trocadero and unmasked them to Hawk Moth and she, the Ladybloger, had no more idea who was under all those masks than she had before. How could she keep them all  _ safe  _ if she didn't  _ know _ . 

Alya was ready to cry in sheer frustration. Ever since she had first been granted the privilege to bear a Miraculous, to see the danger from the inside, she had seen how dangerous it would be for their secret identities to be revealed. She still wanted to know but she had carefully misdirected anything that seemed to be getting close to any kind of reality and kept her own investigations just in her own head, not even sharing them with Nino. 

She had even left up Lila's interviews about her “friendship” with Ladybug. Just one night working with the heroine and Alya knew that any real friend would have never shared even the hint that they were LBs bestie. But it made good cover. Really, It wasn't like Lila didn't know enough interesting people that she had to make up a friendship with Ladybug too. 

As she sat there stewing in sorrow and furry Alya Césaire vowed a vow that what went down today would never happen again.

* * *

Monday morning she waited patiently for Sabrina to go on up to class from the locker room. Leaving Chloé alone, compact out, checking her makeup. 

As Alya slid unnoticed up to the self absorbed socialite Nino came round from the other aisle where he had been waiting and leaned silently against the next locker down, back towards them, seeming to play with his phone but watching and blocking the view of what was happening from the hall. 

“Hello, Chloé” Alya spat, her voice pitched low so as not to carrey past her nemesis ears. “I hope you had fun yesterday.” Chloé startled then tried to look indignant but that faded rapidly as she took in Alya's furious expression. “Whatever you have that you think you have to say, save it. For once in your miserable existence you will listen to someone else, you stuck up self absorbed  _ BITCH _ .” Alay hissed. “I know you think you have the city in your pocket because your ‘daddykins’ is the Mayor, but if you breathe a word of our identities, or this conversation. This ‘fake journalist’ will make sure everybody knows that half the akumas in Paris are your fault!” Alya bit off the word, then drew out the next, just to make sure she had the yellow twit’s attention. “A~nd, that because of you choosing to side with Hawk Moth seven experienced heroes are no longer available for Ladybug to draw on, that you took that first butterfly and tried to take a second. That you were helping Hawk Moth  _ of your own free will,  _ and that you almost gave the Miraculous into his hands.” Chloé tried to protest but Alya just rolled over her, words spilling from her mouth like lava down the side of a volcano. “I have videos that can prove how ‘daddy’ has broken the law just so you can have the little things that you want. How long do you think he will stay Mayor if that comes out and how long will it be before the mob stops baying for your blood? They might even dust off one of the old guillotines.”

Alya watched as Chloé’s face cycled from red with outrage, through white shock then settled on a sickly pale green. Despite the off color the normally peach completed blond kept her face a mask of pure haughtier. “We'll, I'm sure I don't know what you’re talking about,” she said, flipping her ponytail as she thrust her nose into the air. “Only an idiot would think letting the whole city know Ladybug’s taste in helpers is atrocious would be at all interesting.” Chloé grabed up her bag and squeezed passed the two of them toward class. “It’s not like I can trade it for anything now,” she mumbled, so low Alya doubted Chloé realized she had spoken out loud or that Alya could hear her. 

For a brief moment she rested in Nino’s sheltering embrace, forehead resting against his chest as she took steadying breaths and recrafted the illusion of a normal school girl over the wreckage of a defrocked super hero.

Pasting smiles on their faces they made their way reluctantly to class.

* * *

Alya spent the next couple weeks beating her head against the wall of her own memory. 

Being revealed to Hawk Moth ment she could no longer help directly but she could work to keep the rest of the team safe and akuma free. 

The worst thing about this Miracle Queen debacle is that she could almost,  _ almost,  _ remember. There were flashes of things after she had donned her miraculous and called on Trixx to transform her. 

She knew that Nino was there, but without the jewel that made him Carapace. She also thought she remembered seeing Kagami just in her school uniform. She had one option for the transformed version of that fiercely crazy girl in two very very brief appearances of a hero with a sword. And elemental powers. 

The first time she had been chased by this monstrous, red, metal centaur wearing a samurai helmet and that possibly could have been Kagami’s mother. She'd have to look at the pictures on the blog that had been submitted by those people who'd seen the event.

It was a shame that that incident was over so fast that she hadn't been able to get there, because the only other time the sword-wielding hero had appeared was with Chat Noir and Ladybug fighting against Heart Hunter, when she was jumping around like crazed cricket chasing a gigantic floating Janus. 

The rest of the heroes were in their transformed state as best she could remember. Luka was only transformed for a couple minutes before Ladybug took his miraculous. The snake only had a couple of appearances. First when they fought Desperada. Very few pictures most people close by had been trapped in the skeletal musicians guitar case and distant shots didn’t show much. 

There had been more from the fight outside Adrien's house with his superfan Wayhem all discoed up. She was going to have to grill Nino about who had been at that party he was still trying to deny had happened. Every male hero she knew about had shown up there including what was probably Max using the portal power from the Startrain incident and and one she had only seen in the flashes of her memories of Miracle Queen. 

She was sure he had noticed more than he realized.

Alya’s eyes widened as something that had been niggling at the back of her mind finally dropped into place. 

* * *

Nino had gotten used to tuning out his girlfriend's rants about how unfair it was that only Chloé knew who all the other Heroes had been. Anger was at least better than the gloom that had overtaken her the first couple weeks after the event and finding out that Hawk Moth knew who they were. 

He’d sat with her as she had clutched herself into a ball on her bed trying not to grieve too hard so she wouldn't summon an akuma.

It was only after they got back from New York where the Superhero puzzle had been briefly displaced by trying to help Adrien and Marinette to stop torturing themselves and the rest of the class with their painfully un-recognized requited crushes on each other that she had an epiphany. 

Nino had been home playing the latest version of Max’s new video game with Noel while their parents were both at work when she barged in rant already in full swing. “I am an idiot! I am complete and total moron! Chloé knows all the masks. If I want to know who else is under the masks all I need to do is watch Chloé !.” His girlfriend paced up and down their narrow living area waving her arms like she was conducting the 1812 overture and thinking at the top of her lungs. “I need to look for what's changed. Who does she look at differently? Is there any one she avoids? More than usual.“ She protested at his raised eyebrow. “You know what I mean.” She said then hopped over the couch to slouch into a truly impressive pout.

Nino turned back around to find his brother had taken advantage of his distraction to spawn kill him three times. 

Which was good because it probably meant he hadn't been paying close attention to Alya’s rambling. Nino would need to make sure though.

It was nice to see her honestly excited, for a change. Parkour had become a favorite date, with or without the masks. But, for weeks she had been too upset to enjoy one of their runs across the roofs of Paris. Or get ice cream at Andre’s. 

“So Dudette, you think you finally have a plan on how to help Ladybug and Chat Noir” He asked, laying his arm across his girlfriend's shoulder and handing her the controller. Alya snuggled into his side and selected Reflecta against Noel’s Mime.

“Silly boy. I  _ always  _ have a plan.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks [sagansjagger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagansjagger) for giving this the look over.


End file.
